Term-Limits Hearing Fills Up Early

Intern Glenna Goldis is staking out the City Council’s hearing on the bill that would let city elected officials serve three terms, instead of only two. Here’s the scene:

All the non-reserved seats in the Council chambers at City Hall were filled by 12:15, although the term-limits hearing is not scheduled to start until 1 p.m.

Almost all of the crowd appears to be with the same pro-legislation group, holding what looked like professionally printed signs with slogans like "Democrats for Choices" and "Elections Are The Real Term Limits" and "If We Can’t Choose We Lose." No one in the group would identify themselves, name the group or, for that matter, speak to me.

Tina Trachtenburg, who plans to testify against the legislation, was more forthcoming.

"Bloomberg has gotten away with a lot of things, and he’s going to get away with this," she said. "And he’s going to get richer and he already has gotten richer of his first two terms."

Trachtenburg’s 14-year-old daughter Rachael is also here, and plans to testify.

Trachtenburg’s friend, who did not want to give her name, is blaming Bloomberg for what she characterized as the recent rise in crime. She was robbed on the Upper East Side two days ago, she explained, blaming the incident on the lack of living-wage jobs.

But, she added, Bloomberg "seems really nice."

UPDATE: Glenna texts from inside the hearing that a few members of the Community Council of the 77th precinct are there to support the legislation.

She also talked to a guy named James who said, "A nation of sheep begets a nation of wolves." He added, "This is a decision engineered by billionaires."